1.5.6-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.5.6 Father Fauchelevent Doing this real quick before some more EU law cramming (been taking this subject for nine weeks, still struggle to remember the difference between the three councils) although I slept really well and woke up in that fun place of being more excited about the exam being nearly over and done with than I am stressed about the exam starting in a few hours. I figured the reason there wasn’t an organised effort was “An unmethodical effort, aid awkwardly given, a wrong shake, might kill him.” You know, even with Javert or the Mayor directing things it just needs one guy to lose his grip and that’s the end of Father Fauchelevent. No one wanted to be the person who killed poor old Fauchelevent, no matter how much money the mayor throws in your face for it. We’ve seen how these small towns talk! (Also, we all think the townspeople aren’t being dicks for once, but are they? Fauchelevent doesn’t like the mayor, maybe the townspeople don’t like him?) Anyway, so, Fauchelevent himself, I had totally forgotten that he didn’t like Madeleine! (And another person who didn’t like the mayor, yet more proof of our narrator’s unreliability.) It seems like this is meant to be a bit of a throwaway, just to make us even more impressed when Madeleine saves his life, but it makes me want to skip ahead to when they meet again, because it puts a whole new spin on it. (I would, but, exam in three hours etc.) Because I know if I was Fauchelevent, when this guy who I never liked, even if I changed my mind after he saved my life and all, when this guy shows up in Paris being all ~I need to disappear~ I would feel at least a little bit vindicated? And while we’re on the subject, a lawyer who was almost educated EXCUSE YOU HUGO, EXCUSE YOU. /angry law student I love when Hugo takes the time out from infodumps and digressions to write plotty plot because the tension in this chapter is so well done, oh my God. If we run with Valjean not having recognised Javert, this is the moment when he does. (I do kind of like that interpretation, because between the disassociation when he was there and presumably trying to suppress all the memories since, it would hardly surprise me that he doesn’t recognise his guards any more.) And then Valjean so clearly knows that this is going to be his undoing, this is going to let his secret out and it’s like Champmathieu Take 1, where he’s got this guy who shouldn’t matter very much to him, who he risks / actively gives up everything to save, but he’s just like “Oh, well, that’s life, I guess” and with a shrug and a sad smile he gets on with it. Then while everyone is falling over themselves with praise he turns to Javert and is just like “Your move, buddy.”